Part 2: ​Choose a Class

Make Your Choice

Your next step is to choose the type of class you would like to play. This will decide how you interact with the game. Do you like clubbing things to death with heavy objects? Or do you prefer to fry them with magical fire? There are thirteen official classes, twelve of which are available in the Player's Handbook or the Basic Rules and Systems Reference Document. These are listed with very short descriptions below. Clerics, Sorcerers and Warlocks all choose a subclass during the character creation process – these are not listed here. You will find a couple of subclass options listed in each of the reference documents listed below, but if you're interested in learning more then feel free to take a look at the class guides.

Available CLASSES

Class	Source	Class	Source
Artificer (Inventor, Scientist)	Eberron: Rising from the Last War	Paladin (Divine Knight)	Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document
Barbarian (Rage-Fuelled Warrior)	​Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document	Ranger (Tracker)	Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document
Bard (Magical Entertainer)	Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document	Rogue (Stealthy)	Basic Rules, Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document
Cleric (Divine Spellcaster)	Basic Rules, Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document	Sorcerer ​(Spellcaster with Innate Power)	Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document
​Druid (Nature-Based Spellcaster, Changes into Animals)	​Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document	Warlock ​(Made a Deal with a Powerful Being)	Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document
Fighter ​(Warrior)	Basic Rules, Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document	Wizard ​(Learned Magic from Books)	Basic Rules, Player's Handbook, ​Systems Reference Document
Monk (Martial Artist)	Player's Handbook, Systems Reference Document

Update Your Character Sheet

Once you have made your choice, you will be presented with some information that you need to add to your character sheet. There are a couple of things that you can ignore for now, because you'll need some more information before you can finalise them.

Make a note of your Hit Dice. This is a general indicator of how tough you are.

Make a note of your proficiencies. Once again, you get armour, weapons, tools and skills to add what you already have, but this time you will also get two saving throws.

If at any stage you end up choosing a skill proficiency that you already had, don't add anything to your skills just yet, but make a note of how many times it happened.

You'll see a set of multiple choice bullet points listed under 'Equipment'. Now is a good time to make these choices and make a note of what you've chosen in the Equipment section of your character sheet. There is a variant rule here to be aware of – sometimes your DM will rule that you will get a certain amount of gold to spend on equipment instead of using this section. If they make this choice, it's fair for you to ask them for guidance on what best to choose from the equipment section. If this happens, it's worth completing all of the other steps of creating your character first.

In the table at the beginning of your class entry, you will see some features listed. Add these to your character sheet and have a read of them in the features section to see what they do. As an example for this, Barbarians get Rage and Unarmoured Defence at 1st Level.

If you have chosen a class that has spells, we will cover how to choose them in a later step.

Record your Hit Die in this box, in the centre of your character sheet.

Mark down which Saving Throws you are proficient with by colouring in the dot next to them.

The Equipment box is at the bottom of your sheet.

Back to Part 1: Choose Race

Continue to Part 3: Decide Stats

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Beginners

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